The invention described herein may be made, used, or licensed by or for the United States Government for Government purposes without the payment of any royalties thereon or therefore.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to high energy explosive materials. In particular, the present Invention relates to high energy insensitive explosive materials which can be machined on high speed loading equipment more easily.
2. Description of Related Art
High energy explosive materials have been known for many years, and formulations have been successfully loading in high speed mechanical loading equipment. In recent years, however, there has been a long-term effort to make such high energy explosives more insensitive and therefore safer to manufacture and handle.
This has led to some difficulties in production processes, such as high speed loading, particularly when an insensitive explosive did not have the same flow characteristics as the high energy explosive previously employed. Loading of high speed sub-munitions is a good example. The equipment upon which such loading has been done was designed to handle Composition A5, which contains 98.5% crystalline RDX with only 1.5% binder. When such machinery attempts to load an insensitive munitions explosive such as PAX 2A IM, which contains an increased amount of plasticizer/binder, the increased binder increases the friction and the resultant buildup of explosive material residue on the tooling/equipment.
It is an object of the present to provide an insensitive high energy explosive which will accommodate use in high speed loading equipment without dangerous residue.
It is another object of the present Invention to provide an insensitive high energy explosive which will accommodate use in high speed loading equipment without dangerous residue, and without compromising explosive performance.
The other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent in light of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment thereof.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an insensitive high energy explosive which can be processed on high speed loading equipment without significant buildup of explosive material on tooling of said high speed loading equipment, said insensitive high energy explosive comprising: a. from about eighty to about ninety-six percent (80.0 to 96.0%) by weight of a high energy explosive chosen from the group comprising cyclotetramethylene tetranitramine (HMX), cyclotrimethylylene trinitramine (RDX), or hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane (CL-20); b. from about two and four-tenths to about twelve percent (2.4 to 1 2.0%) by weight of an energetic plasticizer; c. from about one and six-tenths to about eight percent (1.6 to 8.09) by weight cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) binder system; and, d. about one half of one percent (0.5%) fluorocarbon additive.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an insensitive high energy explosive which can be processed on high speed loading equipment without significant buildup of explosive material on tooling of said high speed loading equipment, said insensitive high energy explosive comprising:
a. from about eighty-five to about ninety percent (85.0 to 90.0%) by weight of a high energy explosive chosen from the group comprising cyclotetramethylene tetranitramine (HMX), cyclotrimethylylene trinitramine (RDX), or hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane (CL-20);
b. from about four to about 8ight percent (4.0 to 8.0%) by weight of an energetic plasticizer;
c. from about two to about six percent (2.0 to 6.0%) by weight CAB binder system; and,
d. about one half of one percent (0.5%) fluorocarbon additive.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a n insensitive high energy explosive which can be processed on high speed loading equipment without significant buildup of explosive material on tooling of said high speed loading equipment, said insensitive high energy explosive comprising:
a. about eighty-five percent (85.0%) by weight of a high energy explosive chosen from the group comprising cyclotetramethylene tetranitramine (HMX), cyclotrimethylylene trinitramine (RDX), or hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane (CL-20);
b. about nine percent (9.0%) by weight of an energetic plasticizer;
c. about six percent (6.0%) by weight CAB binder system; and,
d. about one half of one percent (0.5%) fluorocarbon additive